bear in mind Canada permits a brutal seal hunt each year with not a single major media outlet reporting that as a critique of Vancouver 2010. But stray dogs are a breaking point apparently.

So does Scotland. But the idiot Eurocrats don't talk about it.

And the seal hunt is necessary to prevent out of control growth of the seal colonies and destruction of the fishing industry. And it is apparently no more brutal than all the animals that are slaughtered in Irish slaughterhouses. Oh but wait, seals are so cute..........

How is that seal hunt different to putting down stray "out of control" dogs in Sochi, yeah its not at all but the media bitch about one and ignore the other.

Well, for a start, the Canadian seals were not in the athletes' village or the journalists' hotel rooms.

And the Canadian seal hunt is an annual programme to control the seal population. The putting down of the dogs in Sochi appears to be a one-time thing during the Games. Afterwards things will return to the status quo and stray dogs will continue to roam the city.

Consider parts of California, where the hands off the seals mentality has led to the closings of beaches to humans because the burgeoning seal population gets priority when it comes to sunbathing areas.

And I do not understand why you keep on about the media ignoring the seal hunt. If you have wonderful, caring people such as Heather McCartney showing her concern for the seals, then you can bet the media will be all over it.

To repeat myself on facebook: there are so many legitimate reasons to critcize Russia, that it saddens me to see so much energy wasted on such trivial things.

In regards to humour ranked according to sheer absurdity, I think that the person who is just beside themself over having to flush toilet paper is my favourite. This is clearly a person who has spent exactly two days outside of North America ever. I mean, of all the things in Russia, this is the most shocking? Really??

lol yes this one made me

You're not allowed to flush toilet paper down toilets in Taiwan because the toilet paper in Taiwan (and possibly South Korea too) is pressed from long sturdy fibers making insoluble in water thus clogging even modern drains.

Canadian treatment of indigenous people, another potential criticism of Vancouver if we want to go there. Same for Sydney 2000. Only four states opposed the UN Convention on the Rights of Indigenous People, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand South American states with indigenous populations all endorsed and supported it.

I've been to Canada and have friends from there but like Vanessa Redgrave once said "I don't know of a single government that actually abides by international human rights law, not one, including my own. They violate these laws in the most despicable and obscene way."

Frankly while I despise the anti-LGBT laws in Russia its not like those throwing the first stones are snow white themselves on human rights.

Canadian treatment of indigenous people, another potential criticism of Vancouver if we want to go there. Same for Sydney 2000. Only four states opposed the UN Convention on the Rights of Indigenous People, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand South American states with indigenous populations all endorsed and supported it.
.

Signing a piece of paper is easy. It is what you do that matters.
I suspect the four states that adhere most closely to the UN Convention on the Rights of Indigenous People are USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
I am sure the Guatemalan indigenous people are so happy that a UN declaration has made them safe for ever.
You should know by now that all UN declarations are just propaganda, usually written by people that then go home and laugh at the people who think they are actually meaningful and actually might be followed by the people who sign them.

Actually the leftist governments across South America have done a lot for indigenous people and ingrained their rights into their constitutions and laws. Widespread educational and environmental protection programs across the region are common and Bolivia elected its first indigenous president.

If they are so keen on indigenous rights why not sign the paper for symbolic purposes, if its meaningless do it like the rest of the world was??

In regards to humour ranked according to sheer absurdity, I think that the person who is just beside themself over having to flush toilet paper is my favourite. This is clearly a person who has spent exactly two days outside of North America ever. I mean, of all the things in Russia, this is the most shocking? Really??

I agree. LOADS of countries I've been to have awful flushing systems. Like Turkey, for example.